If you want to lose fat but haven’t done any exercise for years, you need to start slow. But the good news is that you can still lose fat fast thanks to one fat burning secret. However, the bad news is that if you exercise too much you could end up in the doctor’s office.

The one thing you must NOT do is to start a program where you do long, slow cardio for an hour every day. If you are overweight and haven’t exercised in a long time, I guarantee you that this will cause an injury.

Time after time I would get new training clients who did this. They tried to lose weight on their own so they started training really hard and really often by themselves. Within 7 days they were injured.

I still remember poor old Carol who started running hills on her own and within a few workouts had torn a muscle. We spent over a year rehabbing that injury while helping her lose fat with a better program.

So what’s the secret to fast fat loss when you are a beginner? It’s easy. The good news is that diet is the key to success. A good diet can help a beginner lose 3-5 pounds in the first week of their fat loss program and up to 10 pounds in the first month.

All you need to do at that time is support your body with a smart exercise program. You don’t need to train as much as a professional marathon runner. Doing that will only put you in the hospital.

Your fat loss program should focus on building strength and consistency. This will help keep you motivated because you won’t be dreading the workouts. After all, training too hard and causing injury is one of the major reasons beginners drop out from their new exercise program. So go slow. Focus on your diet. That is where the results will come from at first.

Mentally, you need to find internal motivation and get external social support so that you are consistent with your program. For social support, you should have a trainer or nutritionist who you meet at least once per month. You should also have a nutrition buddy at work, and you should have an exercise partner if possible.

Those three people will help you stick to your fat loss program and you’ll be amazed at what consistency can do for you. You should also set short-term and long-term goals to help guide your fat loss program.

Each morning or evening you need to review your goals so that you will constantly be thinking of the behaviors you have to exhibit if you want to achieve those goals. So review your progress and your plan every day.

Finally, here’s a simple strength training circuit a beginner should to build the muscles while they lose the fat. If you do this, you’ll be ready for more advanced workouts in the future that will help you burn fat after the initial results from your diet changes.

Lie on the ground and do the following exercises. Take as much rest as you need to. Do each exercise for 8-15 repetitions (except for the plank and side plank – those exercises should be held for 15 to 30 seconds).

Here’s your circuit. Start with a lying hip extension. Then do kneeling pushups. Next is stability ball leg curls. Then do the plank. Next is one leg hip extensions. Then do side plank. Take a rest and repeat that circuit up to 2 more times. That’s it. Do that for 2 weeks and then start adding interval training.

Combined with the secret weapon of a whole, natural foods diet, this beginner fat loss program will help you lose 10 pounds this month.